Nintendo announced Metroid Prime 4 so fans 'understood there was a great console experience coming'

'Metroid is an important franchise for us'

Reggie Fils-Aime has said that the reason Metroid Prime 4 was announced during Nintendo's E3 Spotlight without anything but a logo was because the company 'wanted to make it clear that Metroid is an important franchise for us.'

Speaking to Polygon, the Nintendo of America president backed Nintendo's decision to announce a Nintendo Switch sequel to 2007's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. 'As we think about how to satisfy the needs to the Metroid fans, we needed to make sure they understood there was a great console experience coming, in addition to coming on Nintendo 3DS.'

Fils-Aime explained that Samus Returns was announced after the Spotlight so they could demo it for a longer period and the Metroid Prime 4 announcement was to 'make sure it was clear that it wasn't one of the other, that we were going to support both of our platforms with a great new Metroid experience.'

Details on Metroid Prime 4 are scarce at the minute, but we do know that Retro Studios, who worked on the previous three games in the series, will not be handling development. Series producer Kensuke Tanabe will be taking up that mantle once again, though.

If you'd like, you can watch the moment Nintendo revealed the game was in development for Nintendo Switch, below.